Sri Kaya (Coconut Jam) recipe
Just realised I haven’t done a recipe post for ages! It is not that I don’t cook at home often enough, in fact I actually spend even more time in kitchen these days than ever before! It’s just that I am super busy lately and hardly go out for dinner, whatever I cook these days are nothing fancy, but simple humble meals of pasta, or steamed rice with one vege two meats. But last Saturday I was in cooking mood and spent the whole afternoon in the kitchen, braising osso bucco in red wine, baking chocolate pudding cakes, and also making one of the most delicious jam spread called Kaya which only needs 4 ingrediens – eggs, sugar, coconut cream and pandan leaves.
Kaya the word in Malay means “rich”, self explanatory really. Whoever had tasted the kaya before would agree that ‘Kaya’ is possibly the most appropriate name for this sweet, decadent, rich, irresistible jam spread for the simple white toast! I could not believe we hardly had any kaya while we were in Malaysia last month and now I am craving for it badly. Then last week I was given a bunch of fresh pandan leaves by the lady from the Asian supermarket in Gosford where I shop frequently, and no doubt the first thing that comes to my mind is to use the pandan leaves and make kaya. I searched the internet for a good kaya recipe and found Steph’s recipe is possibly the most reliable and her kaya also looks so damn good, and decided to give it a go.
As I want the kaya to have a stronger toffee flavour, I substituted part of the sugar content using brown sugar which also gives the kaya a darker brown like caramel instead of the golden colour. Some recipes suggest to achieve a vibrant red-ish golden colour is by adding caramelised sugar into the mixture. The colour doesn’t really affect the flavour, as it tasted just as amazing, sweet and creamy, eggy but fragrant with coconut milk and pandan leaves, with a hint of toffee lingers in the mouth afterwards. This recipe requires patience and determination. Good things come to those who wait, take it slow and you will be rewarded with the silkiest, creamiest rich kaya you’ve ever tasted.
Kaya toast is a very popular breakfast item in Malaysia and Singapore. We usually spread kaya jam sparingly on steamed or toasted white bread with thick slabs of butter in between. You’ll find most restaurants in Malaysia usually serve kaya toast and soft-boiled eggs with a cup of kopi (or white coffee) on the breakfast set menu.
The kaya is actually very easy to make, I urge you to give it a try.
Sri Kaya recipe
(fills one and a half of 8oz jars)
Ingredients
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
100g castor sugar
50g brown sugar
250ml thick coconut milk, from grated white of 2 coconuts (If use cans, make sure it is 100% coconut milk extract. I used Ayam's brand 100% coconut cream)
3–4 screwpine leaves (pandan leaves), knotted
Method
1. Set up a double boiler - fill a pot with water around 3/4 full and bring to boil. Once boiled, turn it down to low/medium heat, the water should be just simmering with bubbles at the bottom of the pot.
2. Use a large mixing bowl (I use a large metal mixing bowl), add eggs and sugar and beat them together until all sugar is dissolved.
3. Slowly add coconut cream into mixture while whisking until well combined.
4. Place the mixing bowl on top of the double boilder with simmering hot water.
6. Tie a knot of all the pandan leaves together, add it into the mixture. Use a silicon spatula and keep stirring.
7. Scrape the side and the bottom of the mixture with the spatula constantly and pour it over the pandan leaves. That way it will stop the mixture cooking too fast with lumps at the bottom, and the hot mixture will extract the pandan flavour from the leaves.
8. The mixture will start to get thick and sticky. Test the mixture whether it is ready by using "parting the sea" technique - draw a line by scraping the mixture in one swift move using the spatula. If you can draw a clean line on the bowl for a second before the mixture flows like lava and covers the line, then it is ready.
9. Once ready, remove it from the heat. Take the pandan leaves out and discard. (Make sure you squeeze all the sticky jam goodness out of the pandan leaves before discarding it)
10. Leave it cool and it will thicken further. Then fill in a sterilised jar and keep in room temperature for up to 5 days, or in the fridge up to a month. But seriously, you will finish the whole jar before you know it.
A Table For Two (ATFT) is Billy Law's food blog that features best eats in Sydney and around the world with drool-worthy food photography to salivate your appetite. I also throw in a smidgen of my food and travel photography for good measure. Billy Law also happened to be a contestant on MasterChef Australia 2011. 
Hey that’s excellent! I was just looking for Kaya recipes yesterday!
Maria´s last [type] ..Finnish Meat Pie
Yay! Glad to see the recipe worked out well, great idea to add brown sugar to give it colour! Like you mentioned, I just added the caramelised sugar at the end to give it colour but it doesn’t really need it! Yumm your kaya toast and soft boiled eggs are making me hungry!
Steph´s last [type] ..Black Forest Self-Saucing Puddings
Ok, now that I’ve got a recipe I can finally try this stuff! I like your idea of using brown sugar for more depth, that’s something I would do as well. Aiyaaah kaya!
john@heneedsfood´s last [type] ..Fried eggs with chestnut mushrooms- kangaroo lup cheong -amp chilli
I’ve had this in Singapore spread over toast but I’ve never tried it with hick slabs of butter…mmmm…heart attack goodness. Thanks for the recipe Billy!
Peter G @ Souvlaki For The Soul´s last [type] ..Redleaf-A South Coast Getaway
That spread sounds yum. I am going to investigate dried pandan leaves as not many fresh asian grocers in rural north-east vic. Hmph.
omg this looks so good! The G-man often complains that tinned coconut milk has a detectable taste to it and swears by the tetra pak version. How long did your batch last is my question!
Helen (grabyourfork)´s last [type] ..Abhis Indian Restaurant- North Strathfield
Great stuff. Kaya is rather versatile, eaten with toasts, yau char kwai, savoury biscuits, egg cake (kai dan gou), etc.
J2Kfm (Malaysian Food Blog)´s last [type] ..Steak Factory – Teluk Intan – Halal Western Food
Yum, that sounds delicious. I’m going to have to give it a try.
i love kaya, brings back childhood memories of singapore… looks like i will give this a try when i find some pandan leaves at the grocery store!
mmm the perfect breakfast! your kaya looks awesomely smooth and hee i love your spoon!
chocolatesuze´s last [type] ..sydney winter festival- cook and phillip square 12
excellent Billy! when are you going into business selling it?
(I’d think the reason you did not have much kaya in Malaysia is because you always had noodles. Some of us had Kaya.)
yewenyi´s last [type] ..Twitter Weekly Updates for 2010-06-27
I made some last year. Must make again. This time, I need more patience.
penny aka jeroxie´s last [type] ..Bokchoy Tang- Federation Square
Yum! Your kaya looks fantastic Billy! I’ve never tried making it, but you’ve inspired me!
steph´s last [type] ..Homemade Marshmallow Recipe
I have made kaya a few times but never posted it because I wasn’t pleased with the color, I used frozen pandan leaves and they always cast a greenish tint to the kaya. ARGH!!! My aunt’s version is always a golden caramel color that looks great, but she had to sit in front of the old traditional yellow color two years “thermal pot” for the whole day. I don’t have that patience. Yours look very smooth and looks like you get fresh pandan leaves in Sydney!!!
Rasa Malaysia´s last [type] ..Red Bean Dumplings 红豆汤圆
I meant *two layers “thermal pot”…
Rasa Malaysia´s last [type] ..Red Bean Dumplings 红豆汤圆
Oh man I love the look of the Kaya. I’m always looking for a kaya recipe, I think yours takes the cake.
Linda@eatshowandtell´s last [type] ..Kansai- Wynyard
Ooh – can’t wait to try this in Malaysia – but that butter scares me…
Tina´s last [type] ..Dear Hunter
just wondering about brown + caster sugar rather than some form of palm sugar for another layer of coconut goodness?
Would gulab malaka works? or is that too dark?
Where do you buy fresh pandan leaves? Can you put them in the fridge before use or they have to be used straight away?
Can I have some Kaya please Billy? I keep reading about how deliciously yummy it is but wouldn’t even know where to go to try some… is it available anywhere in Sydney?
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